The Squid's Ear Magazine


Karayorgis, Pandelis Trio (w/ Damon Smith / Eric Rosenthal): Cliff (Driff Records)

Contrasting his concurrent piano trio album with Nate McBride and Luther Gray, "Pools", "Cliff" is a first encounter between Boston-area pianist and composer Pandelis Karayorgis and drummer Eric Rosenthal with double bassist Damon Smith, recently migrated from the West Coast, as the three present a concentrative album of collective improvisation revealing three masterful players.
 

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product information:

Personnel:



Pandelis Karayorgis-piano

Damon Smith-bass

Eric Rosenthal-drums


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UPC: 040201984921

Label: Driff Records
Catalog ID: 1803
Squidco Product Code: 26604

Format: CD
Condition: New
Released: 2018
Country: USA
Packaging: Cardboard sleeve, sealed
Recorded in Cambridge, Massachustus, on July 18th, 2018, by Pandelis Karayorgis.

Descriptions, Reviews, &c.

"Cliff explores density, pulse and texture in four extended trio improvisations. Karayorgis and Rosenthal share a long musical relationship dating back to the early nineties. For this session they are joined by bassist Damon Smith who has recently relocated to the Boston area and has played with both several times over the past couple of years. This CD captures their first encounter as a trio in June 2018 during an informal house recording session."-Driff


Artist Biographies

"Pandelis Karayorgis is a Boston based jazz/improvised music pianist, composer and educator.

In the last twenty years mostly led or co-led numerous groups in performances at festivals and clubs in Europe and the United States and Canada. Recordings appear on labels such as Hat Art, HatOLOGY, Clean Feed, Not Two, Leo Records, Nuscope, Boxholder, Okkadisk, Cadence, Accurate, Leo Lab, Ayler and more recently on Driff Records, a new artist-run label co-founded by Pandelis Karayorgis and Jorrit Dijkstra.

Some of the most extensive recording/performing collaborations have been with Nate McBride, Curt Newton, Ken Vandermark, Mat Maneri, Guillermo Gregorio, Jorrit Dijkstra, Luther Gray, Jef Charland, Randy Peterson and Dave Rempis.Pandelis Karayorgis performed and recorded with Joe Maneri, Han Bennink, Mary Oliver, Jeb Bishop, Steve Swell, Frank Rosaly, Jason Roebke, Keefe Jackson, Tony Malaby, Michael Formanek, Forbes Graham, Matt Langley, Jeff Galindo, Taylor Ho Bynum, John Lockwood and Eric Rosenthal.

Also performed with Josh Abrams, Chad Taylor, Jason Adasciewicz, Jacob William, Laurence Cook, Eric Hofbauer, Jeff Parker, Tim Daisy, Jason Stein, Mike Reed, Josh Berman, Charles Waters, James Falzone, Nori Tanaka, Daniel Levin, Kresten Osgood, Jeff Platz and Charlie Kohlase.

Notable projects include The Pandelis Karayorgis Quintet, The Whammies, The Pandelis Karayorgis Trio (whose first trio CD "Heart And Sack" was featured on National Public Radio's program Fresh Air), the mi3, Construction Party, System of 5, the quartet Matchbox, the large group Bathysphere and more recently, the quintet Cutout.

Born in Athens, Greece in 1962, moved to Boston in 1985. Prior to that, studied piano and performed in various jazz groups in Athens while pursuing a degree in Economics. Earned BM and MM degrees in music from Boston's New England Conservatory while studying with Paul Bley, Jimmy Giuffre, George Russell, Dave Holland and Joe Maneri (composition). Studied and performed extensively Thelonious Monk's and Lennie Tristano's music and in 1991 compiled a collection of all of Monk's compositions."

-Pandelis Karayorgis Website (http://karayorgis.com/Pages/bio.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Damon Smith studied double bass with Lisle Ellis and has had lessons with Bertram Turezky, Joëlle Leandré, John Lindberg, Mark Dresser and others. Damon's explorations into the sonic palette of the double bass have resulted in a personal, flexible improvisational language based in the American jazz avant-garde movement and European non-idiomatic free improvisation. Visual art, film and dance heavily influence his music, as evidenced by his CAMH performance of Ben Patterson's Variations for Double Bass, collaborations with director Werner Herzog on soundtracks for Grizzly Man and Encounters at the End of the World, and an early performance with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company.

Damon has collaborated with a wide range of musicians, including: Cecil Taylor, Marshall Allen (of Sun Ra's Arkestra), Henry Kaiser, Roscoe Mitchell, Michael Pisaro, Wadada Leo Smith, Marco Eneidi, Wolfgang Fuchs, Peter Brötzmann and Peter Kowald. After many years in the San Francisco Bay Area, and five great years in Houston, Texas working regularly with Alvin Fielder, Sandy Ewen, David Dove & Chris Cogburn, Damon will move to the Boston area in the fall of 2016. Damon has run Balance Point Acoustics record label since 2001, releasing music focusing on transatlantic collaborations between US and European musicians."

-Balance Point Acoustic Website (https://www.balancepointacoustics.com/damon-smith/)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.

"Drummer Eric Rosenthal is based out of the Boston area. The former student of Ed Blackwell has studied and performed more than American jazz drumming; he has also delved into West African traditional and South Indian classical percussion. Rosenthal has performed and improvised with Anthony Braxton, Mat Maneri, Pandelis Karayorgis, Mario Pavone, and the Either/Orchestra. He has performed all over North America and Europe, and appeared in Greece at the Patras Jazz Festival, at Montreal's North Sea Jazz festival, even at Finland's Pori Festival. Besides producing his own improvised music recordings, he also appears on CDs with the Hypnotic Clambake and the Zairean soukous band Freestyle. The late '90s found Rosenthal busy in the group Naftule's Dream. The band has two releases on John Zorn's Tzadik label, Search for the Golden Dreydl and Smash, Clap!"

-Evil Clown (http://www.evilclown.rocks/bio-eric-rosenthal.html)
3/27/2024

Have a better biography or biography source? Please Contact Us so that we can update this biography.


Track Listing:



1. Trio 1 9:04

2. Trio 2 18:57

3. Trio 3 12:18

4. Trio 4 11:22

Related Categories of Interest:


Improvised Music
Jazz
Free Improvisation
Boston Area Improvisers
West Coast/Pacific US Jazz
Trio Recordings
Piano Trio (Piano Bass Drums)

Search for other titles on the label:
Driff Records.


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